Sociologist of religion analyses strategies of the Christian Right

Austrian scholar Kristina Stoeckl, who teaches in Rome, spoke in Salzburg about the political instrumentalization of religion, attacks on minority rights and democracy, and the consequences of global culture wars.

The transnational networking of Christian right-wing movements in Europe, their religious references, and political strategies were the focus of a lecture by sociologist of religion Kristina Stoeckl on Thursday evening at the University of Salzburg. "In particular, the role of religion in society and politics is to be renegotiated from the perspective of the Christian right, and the secularization of politics is to be reversed," was Stoeckl's analysis. 

Cathcon:  This platform clearly wants to exclude Catholicism from politics and stereotypes and scapegoats anyone who does support Catholicism as "far right".

Christian right-wing actors and their networks are not concerned with isolated political influence, but rather with a fundamental change to the liberal post-war order. This includes, for example, the erosion of minority rights, restrictive migration policies, and criticism of the established church, which is perceived as "too liberal."

While Christian right-wing groups are minorities in society as a whole, and their beliefs and life choices "hardly command a majority," their political impact should not be underestimated, Stoeckl summarized. The anti-liberalism of the Christian right leads in political practice "immediately to a reduction of minority rights, a decline in pluralism, and an attack on the multi-level architecture of political legitimacy that characterized the post-war order."

The goal of "Trump's MAGA America, Putin's Russia, Viktor Orbán's Hungary, and the political campaigns of many right-wing parties in Europe" is to dismantle this post-war order. Religion is "partly a tool, but partly something more—namely, the driving force," Stoeckl said.

Christian right-wingers should not be equated with the churches, emphasized the scholar, who teaches in Rome. They are more accurately described as minorities within the churches, and as such, they question the established churches as being too liberal or consciously distance themselves from church hierarchies.

Ideology, institution and strategy

The "Christian right" is defined not solely by its content, but by the interplay of ideology, institutional form, and political strategy. Ideologically, the movement combines conservative Christian positions with elements of far-right worldviews—such as the rejection of abortion, sexual and reproductive self-determination, the rights of sexual minorities, the preference for patriarchal family models, Islamophobia, and the concept of a Christian-defined nation.

Therefore, the institutional form is crucial, not the content, since many of these ideas are also found in mainstream Christianity, Stoeckl argued. Christian right-wing actors appear, for example, as political parties, as individual politicians, as networks of intellectuals, or as religiously organized groups within civil society. Stoeckl cited the CitizenGo platform and the Christian-conservative NGO World Congress of Families as examples.

Lobbying and narrowing the focus

Religion serves the Christian right not only as a marker of identity but also as a political instrument for shifting the rules of democracy, Stoeckl explained. In doing so, Christian right-wing actors also utilize forms of mobilization originally developed by progressive movements, such as transnational networking, professional lobbying, public awareness campaigns, and strategic lawsuits before national and international courts. The public debate is often reduced to global value conflicts, abortion, and LGBTQ+ issues. The rest of Christian social teaching—such as poverty reduction and hospitality—and social reality are ignored, Stoeckl pointed out. For the Christian churches, the involvement of the Christian right consequently also means "a dangerous narrowing of the issues," the sociologist warned.

The lecture took place at the Catholic Theological Faculty of Salzburg and was organized by the Catholic Academic Association (KAV) Salzburg in cooperation with the Center for Intercultural Theology and Religious Studies. The evening was moderated by Heinrich Schmidinger, Chairman of the KAV Salzburg.

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